World in Brief / LEBANON

Appeal made in witchcraft case

A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said religious police who arrested Fawza Falih and the judges who tried her in Quraiyat, Saudi Arabia, never gave her the opportunity to prove her innocence in the face of "absurd charges that have no basis in law."

The judges relied on a coerced confession and on the statements of witnesses who said she had "bewitched" them, according to the group.